1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a light beam scanning apparatus and a light beam scanning method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A light source referred to as a laser diode (LD) or a semiconductor laser that is used in an electrophotography type image forming apparatus, detects characteristics of the light source according to an initialization operation, and performs high-precision light amount control. The initialization of the light source is started by a control signal and initialization time of the light source is controlled by a synchronization detection signal The synchronization detection signal is generated by a synchronization element such as a synchronization detection sensor. Normally, one light source is controlled by one synchronization detection element. In this case, the same number of the synchronization detection elements as the number of the light sources is needed, the number of parts increases, and the cost increases. Therefore, in order to lower the cost, a method is known in which multiple light sources are controlled by one synchronization detection element (e.g., two light sources are controlled by one synchronization detection element).
It should be noted that, when initialization of multiple array light sources is performed by using one synchronization detection element, the initialization is performed not only for one light source but also for the other light sources that share the synchronization detection element with the light source. As a result, there may be a case where characteristics of a LD as a light source cannot be properly detected.
Therefore, a light beam scanning apparatus that can perform properly the initialization of multiple array light sources with an inexpensive structure is required.